Income Inequality and College Enrollment

The Wall Street Journal looks at some numbers behind race and college enrollment, but finds that “the biggest disparities in college enrollment are among varying incomes. More than 80% of high-income graduates go on to college, compared to 66% of middle-income students and just 52% of low-income graduates. All of those shares are higher than the 1980s, but the gaps between them haven’t narrowed much in over 30 years.”

“In fact, the gap between the highest and lowest income students looks like it’s going the wrong way. In the years between the 2001 and 2008 recession, the gap averaged about 26 percentage points, but from 2009 to 2012, it has averaged 30 percentage points.”